Mayor John Lee today announced the Nevada Affordable Housing Assistance Corporation and Home Means Nevada, two state-affiliated nonprofits agencies that help distressed homeowners, would be moving to City Hall.

NAHAC agreed to a three-year lease for 6,058 square feet of space on the third floor of City Hall. According to a news release, the agency will pay $416,548.08, or about $1.91 per square foot, to the city over the duration of the lease.

Home Means Nevada agreed to rent 1,616 square feet of space on the sixth floor of City Hall. The agency is expected to pay $35,875.20, or about $1.85 per square foot, over the term of the one-year lease.

Lee, who has been in office for almost a year, had been actively seeking tenants for unoccupied space within the nine-story building that cost $127 million when it opened under a cloud of criticism in 2011.

At the time, North Las Vegas city government was shedding employees due to the recession, and the building that was built for growth suddenly looked like an empty shell.

City payrolls haven’t grown much since then, and the city still faces severe financial woes.

One city staffer estimated in late 2013 that as much as half of the square footage in the building is vacant or under-used.

“When I came into office I promised to do something about underutilized assets in our city, and I’m proud to announce today a solution that benefits everyone,” Lee said. “NAHAC and Home Means Nevada do such great work on behalf of residents, we thought it was a perfect fit for the North Las Vegas City Hall.”